Rain in a lean-to

Thursday, June 25th

Thursday morning we reserved a lean-to in Baxter State Park. We set up the wet tent inside the lean-to and hooked the dripping tarp to the top of the structure with the other end tied to the pick nick table with a bungie cored. Then we headed out to hike hoping everything would dry out by that evening.


In the morning we headed up the Little Niagara trail. The weather was perfect all day.
I could spend ages at this park, and never grow tired of it!
Canoe's were only a dollar an hour, so we spent some peaceful time gliding across one of the many lakes the park has to offer.After getting back to camp we took another trail nearby up to Katahdin Stream Falls. Rain fell as we started up the trail, but once in while the sun would stream through some of the trees on the the vibrant greens.

Even though it did rain most of the night it stopped by morning. We had a nice pancake breakfast at the picnic table, packed up our dry gear and headed to New Hampshire.

Moose encounters

Wednesday, June 24th

Wednesday we arrived in Millinocket and checked into the Econo lodge. It was a great place to wash a few soggy clothes and dry out some of our gear.

In the morning we rode our bike from Millinocket up to Baxter State Park. The ride was great with nice rolling hills and beautiful scenery. Our original plan was to spend one day in Baxter State Park, then head to the White Mountains in NH. After talking to the park ranger however we decided there were too many things we wanted to check out in this park so we decided to give it another two days.

Wednesday evening we drove back up to the park and hiked up South Turner Mountain. On our way into the woods we stopped at Grassy Lake Pond. Trin noticed that the "huge rock" in the middle of the pond seemed to be moving. We watched for quite some time before a Moose head poped up out of the water and stood there chewing. We were amazed at how long she could hold her breath in search of food on the bottom of the pond.

We circled the other side of the pond and followed a narrow trail onto a large rock in the pond. Once on the rock we heard loud splashed right over the ledge. A big bull Moose appeared, circled the rock and stood right next the the narrow path we had just crossed. For the longest time he stood starring at our only path back to land. We pondered the wisdom of walking two feet in front a very large wild animal. Eventually we decided to go. First I went a little closer and asked, "do you mind if we walk in front of you" I wanted to make sure he knew we were there so that he would not be starled. Then without looking at him we walked in nonchalantly accross the path in front of him. Once in the woods I did have to pause and turn around to snap this picture. =)

The hike up South Turner Mountain was worth every step. I could sit all day and just stare at views like this.
Clouds just rolled by as we gazed at the mountains.
Eventually, we did have to head back down.

Acadia Rain

Tuesday, June 23rd

Today we checked out of our campground in Acadia and headed our car up to Baxter State Park.

Acadia was beautiful! My favorite scenic bike ride was the Schoodic loop. It's a short ride, but has a nice view of the beach almost the entire way!
The short hike up Beehive mountain was worth every step / crawl.

Acadia Natl Park

Sunday, June 21st

We made it to our Blackwoods camp site very late Saturday night in pouring rain. When we shut off the car lights it was pitch black, perfect - how a night in the woods should be. We shuffled around in the car getting our gear ready for a mad dash to set up the tent and jumped inside.

Crawling out of the tent in the moring I was greeted by this beautiful view!

The rain had tapered off by morning so we made pancakes on the camp stove and geared up for a scenic ride through the park.
We had one misshap with a flat tire, aggravated by the fact that the brand new pump from Dicks Sporting Goods did not work at all! Thankfully we were only six miles into the ride so I rode back for the car. We headed into town to get a new pump - the one from Wal-Mart works great! We stopped for lunch at Maine Luau Seafood and BBQ - excellent food!! Excellent service!!!With the tire fixed and the car back at the camp site we started the loop again.The park loop from Black woods up to Bar Harbor and back was a nice relaxing ride. Pedaled away all the thoughts of work.

Along the way we detoured on some of the carriage roads. Moss covered everything in the woods, the green was vibrant in the rain.

We detoured up Cadillac Mountain. I love the nice smooth roads in this park. Although the rain cuts down on the view it also cuts down on the traffic. =)

Tonight we shall sleep well to the sound of pattering rain.

NH Sea Coast

Saturday, June 20th (just catching up on this blog)
Finally on vacation!!! Maybe a day late since both of us ended up working another 12 hrs more than anticipated. Normally I start packing a week or two ahead of time. For this trip I started Friday night.

Saturday we stopped at the New Hampshire Sea Coast and did a 30 mile loop on our bikes with beautiful views of the sea. It was a good break before heading on to Maine.